Meaning of terse | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Of speech or style: brief, concise, to the point.
   broadly
2. Laconic, terse.
3. Of manner or speech: abruptly or brusquely short; curt.
   broadly
4. Burnished, polished; fine, smooth; neat, spruce.
   obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“In eight terse lines has Phædrus told / (So frugal were the Bards of old) / A Tale of Goats; and clos'd with grace / Plan⟳, Moral, all, in that ſhort space.”

“Your last⟳ series contains some of the neatest, tersest, and most unpretendingly original criticism, I have⟳ lately met with.”

“The book contains some happily done portrait touches of Napoleon, [...] and this and other aphoristical sentences scattered throughout this volume, [...] form⟳ as terse and trenchant a character-sketch of the Emperor as may be found almost anywhere.”

“Many protested that they had nothing to do with the fighting. At a word from the General the soldiers ripped off the men's shirts and examined the front of their shoulders. If they found bruises that might have⟳ been made from the butt of a gun when it had been fired—the terse order⟳ was, "Shoot⟳ him!" And many of the young men of Trujillo had disappeared.”

“[...] [Samuel] Beckett has become⟳ virtually mute, musewise, having progressed from marvellously constructed English sentences through terser and terser French ones to the unsyntactical, unpunctuated prose of Comment⟳ C'est and 'ultimately' to wordless mimes.”

“Mr SPEAKER: If the honourable member could be terse. / Mr O'Flynn: I shall be very terse. It may be my fault, Mr Speaker, but I doubt⟳ if you have⟳ quite appreciated the point⟳.”

“Having attempted to identify⟳ a role for the society and its magazine, Quest, "for the next 40 years", the society chairman, Rhea Williams, decided it was time to close⟳. She announced the group's demise in a terse message to members following the annual meeting, which just 22 people attended.”

“'Laura!' The voice halting her was terse. Brusque. She turned. [...] 'Before I go,' he said, and his voice was terse, tighter than ever. 'I want⟳ to ensure you understand⟳ something.'”

“My voice was terser than I intended, but what the hell. The night was turning out to be interesting in some ways and extremely frustrating in others.”

“By Phœbus, here's a moſt neate fine ſtreete; is't not? I proteſt to thee, I am enamord of this ſtreete now, more then of halfe the ſtreetes of Rome, againe; tis ſo polite, and terſe; [...]”

CEFR level